₦airaland Forum

Police college Lagos 1972
Dominique
Lordreed
budaatum
Hopeful landlord
Peacefull
CAPSLOCKED
Starbuck
Sinkhole
Puvo
NoQualmz
Dyt

Lagos market, 1956

Seventh Day Adventists Secondary Modern School, Ife, Nigeria (1959).

Lagos 1952.
VintageNigeria

Mixed Igbo-Irish family. 1980 in Nsukka.

A freed Yoruba slave from Bahia, Brazil. 1800s

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (October 15th, 1938 - August 2nd 1997)

Children of the Celestial Church of Christ (Aladura), 1982

Two women pounding yams.

nigerianostalgia
A Nigerian wedding in 1967

Martiniano Eliseu do Bomfim Yoruba name was Òjélàdé, (1859-1943), was born in Bahia, Brazil. His father was a member of the Egba, one of the Yoruba sub-groups, had been brought to Brazil as a slave in 1820 and liberated there in 1842. A 16-year-old Martiniano accompanied his father, Eliseu do Bomfim, who was an import/export trader of Yoruba goods, on a trip from Salvador, Bahia to Lagos, Yorubaland in 1875 for the purpose of attending school and learning a trade. In Lagos he attended the Church Missionary Society Alápákó Fàájì School for almost 11 years. He arrived back in Salvador on January 30, 1886. During his time in Lagos Martiniano became fluent not only in English but also in Yoruba. He also acquired knowledge of Ifá, the Yoruba system of divination and became a Babalawo, as well as being trained as a bricklayer and house painter. Back in Bahia he worked as an English teacher for well to do Afro-Brazilians. Martiniano died on November 1, 1943 in Salvador, Bahia. Photo: 1937

Cândido da Fonseca Galvão, also known as Oba II d’Africa (1845-1890) was a Brazilian man who fought in the War of the Triple Alliance (also called the Paraguayan War) and claimed to be the grandson of an African prince whose son had been brought to Brazil as a slave. Galvão himself was born a free man in Bahia, and enlisted in the military at a time when Black slavery was still legal in what was then the Empire of Brazil.

Galvão was the grandson of the powerful African prince Alafin Abiodun, who unified the Yoruba kingdom of Oyó in the late eighteenth century. Galvão’s father fought in the wars that raged in that region of Africa in the early nineteenth century, was captured in battle, and sold into slavery. He was then transported to Bahia. With the help of friends among the Yoruba community in Salvador, Galvão’s father quickly purchased his freedom. He then married and had children. As an offspring of freedpersons, Cândido Galvão was raised as a free black man near the town of Lençóis in the interior of Bahia.

Dom Obá II considered it his duty to fight for his country in the war against Paraguay. “As the patriotic soldier that I am, I understand that I have only been doing my duty in taking an active part in all the matters that I understand to be grave.” Enlisting as a Voluntário in the all-black Zuavo company that departed from Lençóis on May 1865, Galvão remained at the front until wounded in his right hand in August 1866. After his return to Bahia, where he remained through the decade of the 1870s, Galvão petitioned government officials for recognition of his service during the war and for monetary compensation. His experience in Paraguay inspired his commitment to ending slavery in Brazil and his pride in being a black man.

Galvão settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1880, where he gained renown. The wealthy considered him a “disturbed veteran” (uma espécie de veterano resmungão) and “folkloric aberration” due to his outspokenness and appearance in attire that included a long black morning coat, tall hat, gloves, umbrella, and walking cane. An activist of the first order, Galvão met personally with the Emperor [Pedro II of Brazil] 125 at public meetings from June 1882 to December 1884! Dom Obá garnered great respect among “the Blacks and the Browns” (the terms commonly used by Galvão) residing in the city. Slaves, freedpersons, and free persons of color all provided financial support that enabled the prince to publish articles in newspapers. In his writings, Galvão praised the contributions of black and brown soldiers during the Paraguayan war, condemned the racism he witnessed in Brazil, and called for an end to slavery.

Threaded hair

University College students. June 1960

Female graduates of University college in Ibadan, Nigeria. 1953

The Ransome-Kuti family children
(L-R) Olikoye, Beko, Dolupo and Fela. Photo taken in 1941

Three sisters in 1954. Lagos, Nigeria.

Two men in southern Nigeria, 1890s

Students inside the library at Comprehensive High School Aiyetoro. 1960s

Northern Nigerian hunters. 1956

Roadside market scene, Lagos 1975

Hundreds of fishermen participating to the annual fishing festival at a river in Argungu, Kebbi state. 1980s

Traffic in the streets of Lagos, 1982

An unidentified Yoruba ruler with his people in 1898.

The time we were less crasier

So these people are actually gone

But why does the past look better?

starbuck:
So these people are actually gone

yeah most , hey buddy ? How's your day going ?

Patrioticbreed9:
But why does the past look better?

I guess because it was..

Patrioticbreed9:
But why does the past look better?

pictures don't lie

Herd of goats in Ibadan, Nigeria. (1971)